Buffalograss, Buchloe dactyloides (Nutt) Engelm., is a warm-season stoloniferous, sod-forming, perennial grass. It is a drought tolerant and important range grass found mainly in the central prairies of the United States with its full range of distribution extending from Canada to Mexico (U.S. Agriculture Handbook, 1959). The buffalograss is the only species of its genus. It contains diploid, tetraploid, and hexaploid races (Stebbins, 1975), of which only the latter occur in the Great Plains area.
The diploid race mainly occurs in Central Mexico and sourthern Texas (Reeder, 1971) and it has rarely been researched for economical values.
`Hilite` 15 buffalograss [(Buchloe dactyloides (Nutt) Engelm.] is a vegetatively propagated, drought and heat resistant female buffalograss clone selected by mass selection. For breeding purposes, seeds of diploid buffalograss germplasms were collected from three locations in Central Mexico, including San Jose, San Clayetano, and Venegas. The population sizes for the three populations used for the first selection cycle were 215 for the San Jose population, 350 for the San Clayetano population, and 300 for the Venegas population, because a limited number of seeds was available.
Plants were established from seeds and space planted in the experimental field at UC, Davis. The plants were mowed weekly at a 2 inch height during the growing season (from May to the end of October). Individual clones were selected from rapid vegetative growth, high turf density, and extended winter turf green color. About 80% of the plants were eliminated in the selection for the above characteristics. The remaining plants were subjected to drought stress during the following summer months by terminating the irrigation for a period of 8 weeks (from June 15th, to August 15).
Two male and two female plants from each of the three populations were selected for their superior performance under the drought stress. For the second selection cycle, a mass cross was constructed by growing the selected six male and six female clones close together in the field and seeds were harvested from the female plants. Six hundred plants were propagated from the seed progeny, were space planted in the field and were subjected to turfgrass management. Through the growing season, the plants were mowed weekly at 2 inch height, irrigated every 10 days with one pound N applied in June and 1 pound N applied in August. This female clone, named `Hilite` 15, was selected for its superior performance in rate of vegetative growth, high turf density, retention of green color above freezing temperature, and superior drought tolerance. Asexual propagation was accomplished by vegetative reproduction from stolons, sprigs, plugs, and spreads of stolonization. Initially the plant was asexually reproduced in the greenhouse of The Department of Environmental Horticulture, University of California, Davis campus, Davis, Calif. Thereafter, such reproduction was tested at the University of California Davis campus and at the Santa Clara field station of Northern California.